Native Hawaiians have made a big mistake in making the Thirty Meter Telescope the centerpiece of the shabby way the Democratic power structure has treated them over the last 50 years.

Failure to build the TMT will seriously harm Hawaii, the university, and business and labor here for decades to come. The Native Hawaiians’ newly discovered sacredness of Mauna Kea smells like George Orwell’s novel, “1984,” where “ignorance is strength.”

That is how the pro-TMT majority here will look at Native Hawaiians in the future, and rightfully so. Sadly, our gutless, please-every-person governor will botch this issue so badly, the result will be the worst possible for all the people of Hawaii.

Native Hawaiians have very legitimate grievances, but the TMT is not the issue to rally around. The TMT should be a victory of knowledge over ignorance, not the other way around. If the TMT is not built, Hawaii will become the laughingstock of the nation, a place where superstition trumps science.

It is time for the majority in Hawaii to do two things — see that the TMT is built, and ensure that Native Hawaiians are no longer excluded from the benefits most people here enjoy.

Earle A. Partington

Punchbowl

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